L2 ASL high school learners' perspectives of Deaf communities and cultures

Hearing people have given their perspectives on deaf1 people and their abilities since antiquity. Recent years have witnessed growth in American Sign Language (ASL) classes as a world language2 in U.S. high schools. This study examines hearing ASL learners' perspectives of the communities and cultures of signing deaf people after they learned about them as a part of their learning of ASL as a world language and assesses the basis on which they develop their perspectives. The N = 217 learners from three northeastern U.S. metropolitan high schools at three different class levels of ASL were asked a question about their thoughts about the signing Deaf communities and cultures. They revealed four perspectives: humanism, pluralism, majority-minority, and no perspective. In addition, the type and distribution of perspectives did not vary across schools and curricula used by teachers and were stable across class levels. Taking coursework did not affect the overall distribution of perspectives among ASL learners at all schools and class levels. A Learner's Social Philosophy Model is proposed to explain the learners' perspectives that are shaped by their social philosophy regarding the nature of humanity, society, and culture.